Editors Note: This set was reviewed on Classic-Castle in 2003 and 2005. Please feel free to add comments to this new thread. Later these comments will be merged with the original set review. Thanks!

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Knight’s Stronghold, a gate and wall section for the Black Monarch’s, was released in 1990. This is one of several wall sections that attach to the Black Monarch’s Castle. The wall includes three Monarch guards, a jail, two large doors, torches, shields and other accessories. Black Falcon soldiers, including a fully armored knight and a siege worker, are attacking the wall with a trebuchet.

This was the first Castle structure I had as a kid, and loved every minute of it. First of all, the Black Knights have a great color contrast with the red/blue/yellow dragon shield against the black brick; it really makes the dragon emblem "pop." You also get the only fully-armored (Euro armor + pointy visor) mounted Black Falcon, 5 generic armored torsos, and a decent looking catapult (though I'm not much of a fan of the 2x2 round bricks as wheels). Since I didn't have a lot of grey bricks as a kid, building in black was much easier, and therefore this set served as the foundation for many of my early castles.

Childhood: The flame that burns its brightest when we are least cognisant of it.

Because I don't own this set I must ask this question. Any one know whether the trebuchet actually fired without manual force(applying force to one end of the catapult) ? I am planning on building one later on today but before I do I just want to ask all of you.Thanks,

Blego7 wrote:Because I don't own this set I must ask this question. Any one know whether the trebuchet actually fired without manual force(applying force to one end of the catapult) ? I am planning on building one later on today but before I do I just want to ask all of you.Thanks,

In answer to your question - yes it does loose, theres a technic axle which you pull to let it go - doesn't hurl bricks very far though.

This set was one I always wanted as a kid, but now own as a big kid! Its a great expander set

I was thinking of making up a Lego 80's style castle set up with 6086 - Black Knight's Castle as the keep, and 6085 - Black Monarch's Castle and6059 - Black Knight's Stronghold as the curtain wall, 6085 obviously being the main gatehouse and perhaps 6059 would be a back or side entrance.I would need to come up with other wall units and could perhaps add Inns and stables much like Lego did for the Lion crusaders range.The difficult part would be trying to fit 6034 - Black Monarch's Ghost into it somewhere, and also what use could it realistically have...

Any Ideas?

Sorry if this went off topic a bit but in conclusion 10/10 for set regardless of the much debated odd uniforms of the soldiers

I'm a bit divided. On one hand the strucure is well built (as far as I can tell from the pic) and I like the figs but from another angle I have problems with all black walls. (mottled involving black is good but black castles irk me no end) Also I think the contrast between the factions isn't very distinct in this set.sum it up as 5/10undecidedlyT.R.

He who thinks you should look at the box that says "Quaraga" if you want to find out his username (about as useful to you as his real name). he only wants you to look so he can laugh about you looking there because he's a total smart...

Blego7 wrote:Because I don't own this set I must ask this question. Any one know whether the trebuchet actually fired without manual force(applying force to one end of the catapult) ? I am planning on building one later on today but before I do I just want to ask all of you.Thanks,

In answer to your question - yes it does loose, theres a technic axle which you pull to let it go - doesn't hurl bricks very far though.

I haven't tested this, but I'm sure it would throw rocks further if you extended the lever arm, or built the big rock part hollow and put something heavy in it!

The difficult part would be trying to fit 6034 - Black Monarch's Ghost into it somewhere, and also what use could it realistically have...

Any Ideas?

I always used the Black Monarchs ghost set as a guard post and placed it near the prison cell on set 6085. or you could use it as a storage cupboard for the kings armor. It still needs to be one brick taller to properly fit in with the castle wall height.

I always thought of this set as the Falcons last attempt to defeat the Black Knight faction before they joined forces.

dyntar wrote:I always used the Black Monarchs ghost set as a guard post and placed it near the prison cell on set 6085. or you could use it as a storage cupboard for the kings armor. It still needs to be one brick taller to properly fit in with the castle wall height.

I always thought of this set as the Falcons last attempt to defeat the Black Knight faction before they joined forces.

a good idea this despite leaving the poor ghost homeless!when I have the time I'll put something together on bricklink in all its blackly goodness

A great set for many reasons. As a stand-alone, it offers great playability with the trebuchet that does fire, and it isn't too bad either! A good assortment of minifigs and pieces, and it looks great. When combined with Monarch's Castle you can expand to create a massive fortress. (See my flickr) I agree with the Battle at the Pass comments, and I love that set as well! It is just unfortunate that it doesn't connect to anything out-of-the-box.

Old_School_Fan wrote:A great set for many reasons. As a stand-alone, it offers great playability with the trebuchet that does fire, and it isn't too bad either! A good assortment of minifigs and pieces, and it looks great. When combined with Monarch's Castle you can expand to create a massive fortress. (See my flickr) I agree with the Battle at the Pass comments, and I love that set as well! It is just unfortunate that it doesn't connect to anything out-of-the-box.

I agree, and would add that for those kids that had space limitations this would be a nice stand-alone. If I was such a kid, I would be happy to have this set.-Tower

This extension is plate based, while BMC is baseplate based, so, out-of the box, they can't connect well together.

The structure has gaps, and show more near hinges when you bend the wall.But anyway, it's one on my wishlist, since it will go with the BMC, and it has the great rounded doors, that are not very common.Torsos are well chosen, since as generic as they are, you could get the whole people belong to one faction, in this case, the siege worker, or the knight, would have been welcome with a rounded shield.

I got this set when I was little, and I really liked it (though I had to share the Black Flacons part with a sibling). I didn't have any other black castles for it to go with (except 6034 - Black Monarch's Ghost), so it had to stand on it's own. I loved the dragon shields! And it also finally gave me a prison to put knights I captured from my sibling's forces... something none of my other castle sets had.